“And while Apple continues to deny that they’re working on a next generation television, you’d have to be an idiot reporter for even expecting Apple to say: ‘Oh, yes, we’re about to reinvent television and here are the juicy details.’ Ha! If you know Apple, then you know not to ask questions about ‘future products’ and expect a reply,” Purcher reports. “With that said, a very simple Apple patent was published today by the USPTO that insists that the company’s Apple TV remote is to work with a clearly defined television – beyond what we know as Apple TV – the set top box style unit.”
“Anyone following Apple knows what Apple TV is – including its unique little infrared remote, so I’m not going to go over the same old tech. I’m just going to point out that Apple mentions ‘television’ separately from Apple TV noted as a ‘set top box,’ eleven times,” Purcher reports. “What threw me for a moment is that Apple’s patent [illustration] shows a computer display-like device and of course my mind paid no attention to their visual that they presented. Well, until Apple insisted that it wasn’t a desktop computer nor a computer display – that is. In plain English, they’re calling it a ‘television.'”
Purcher reports, “Sorry, but that wasn’t an accident. Engineers who design Apple’s products aren’t going to call something a television that is clearly an iMac, a desktop or simply a Cinema Display. Sometimes a television is just that, a television.”
Full article, with patent illustrations, here.
[Attribution: ZDNet]
the mac mini’s rumoured to be getting hdmi soon
that could explain a lot
“the mac mini’s rumoured to be getting hdmi soon”
It would be a shame if they ditch the ATV for an enhanced Mac Mini (unless they replace FrontRow with ATV software). That’s just too ‘PC’ & it doesn’t make sense. The Mac Mini would be an expensive option compared to integrating the ATV with TimeCapsule and why would you want a 2-foot interface when a 10-foot one’s required? Too geeky – not consumer enough for Apple.
It would be an admission of defeat.
McD
Maybe apple tv will just get an HD tuner built in.
Apple won’t ever sell a TV. No point to it. It’s a cutthroat, mature market that offers them no value.
Apple still refuses to respect the AppleTV. Their ‘gut’ tells them there’s something there? That’s either the most disingenuous statement in history, or they really have never recognized it’s potential, or there are reasons (content, patents, industry partner covenants and promises, licenses, and other bags of hurt) that they haven’t been able to do any more with the device than they have.
Let’s face it, dozens, if not hundreds of people on these forums (and all the others as well) have suggested many improvements and feature additions that would have made the AppleTV more popular, more useful, and more relevant, rather than just a ‘hobby’.
It’s a mystery to me.
Chano:
how about a 50″ with 6400 x 3600 res…
Dammmm… aand I thought downloadable 4000 x 2000 was crazy.
But really, Apple is no threat with 720P. Not at all. The quality just is NOT THERE as far as I know. Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t blu-ray MUCH BETTER than Apple tv? Anyone?